Chapter 16
Toward a New Heaven and a New Earth:
The Scientific Revolution and the
Emergence of Modern Science
Scientific Revolution: Introduction
Yo, Galen! Bad news…those
blasted Renaissance thinkers
have kicked us to the curb!
 The 16th and 17th centuries witnessed
SWEEPING CHANGES in the scientific view of the
universe.



Those
ungrateful
turds!


Earth-centered view of universe gave way to suncentered view (geocentric vs. heliocentric)
Sun became one of millions of stars
Telescope and the microscope altered perception
of humankind’s place in the grand scheme
Instigated a profound rethinking of moral, religious
AND scientific matters
Faith and reason had to be reconciled, as did faith
and science
 These new ideas and methods of science, known
as natural philosophy, challenged modes of
thinking associated with late medieval times:
scholasticism and Aristotelian philosophy.
Background to the Scientific Revolution:
Medieval and Renaissance Influence
Hey remember me?
 Medieval Science – sparked by plague, early medicine
 Renaissance scholars’ knowledge of Greek, made
additional classical works available –


Some suggested a heliocentric model of the
universe!
Not surprising that the largest advances made
were in the areas that the GREEKS dominated in
the classical period – astronomy, mechanics,
medicine.
 Not all the classical authorities agreed – this was
discovered in the Renaissance period.
 Rediscovery of classical mathematicians and emphasis
on Plato promoted the idea that math held the key to all
the secrets of the universe – Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo
and Newton bought into this. Renaissance Humanists –
found contradictions of Aristotle and Galen
Background to Scientific Revolution:
Renaissance and Reformation
Yeah, Aristotle!
Who’s number 1
now, Beotch?
 Magical element in the Scientific
Revolution – the idea of Renaissance
Hermeticism: world embodied divinity
and all humans had a “divine spark” that
gave them the power to understand and
employ natural power to benefit the world.
 Renaissance artists’ impact on scientific
study

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
Plato
Close Observation of Nature
Perspective and Anatomical Proportions
Leonardo: universal genius but isolated, ideas
not transmitted to all
 Reformation’s challenge to Church/Faith-
based “truths” allowed for opportunity to
question tradition
Background to Scientific Revolution:
Skepticism and Exploration?
I doubt it.
 Skepticism: belief no certain “truths” could be reached
Montaigne’s Essays
 Pierre Bayle (1647-1706); his Historical and Critical
Dictionary: problem of distinguishing truth from opinion and
stressed religious toleration.
 Exploration: new medicines, diseases, wealth, foods,
products, beliefs, AND people


Technological Innovations

Knowledge of the variety of human types and human
customs and cultures tended to undermine old thought
As philosophers viewed human diversity, they gained a
sense of the relative nature of social institutions
Belief in an absolute, God-given set of values become more
difficult to justify
Jesuit missionaries, the most traveled of educated men,
stressed natural goodness and alertness of the peoples
they met
Others came to praise non-Christian religions for their
virtues



Michel de
Montaigne – the
best-known skeptic
of his day and
Pierre Bayle.

Emphasis on Evidence
 New Sense of Evidence
 In English law (Bill of Rights, 1689) new rules of evidence
were put into use, with less discretion by judges.
 hearsay evidence was not allowed, and accused were
allowed legal counsel.
 Confessions could not be extracted by torture--and there
was a new search into the validity of confessions in general.
 torture continued to be used in Europe, nonetheless
 Historians began to insist on evidence and turned to
greater use of archival sources.


The science of authenticating coins, manuscripts, etc. was
begun.
Others began to rethink the age of the world.
Backlash and Fear?
I can
predict
the
future!
 Changes and challenge to tradition, as
well as the “new science,” brought a
backlash of superstition and persecution


Bullsh%t.
rapid political, religious, and scientific
changes created fear and anxiety among
all sectors of society
exploded into Europe’s worst witchhunt.
(witchcraft “craze” of late 16th and early
17th century, malleus malificarum in full
force)
 Gullibility and the tendency toward over-
belief still persisted…


Lack of dividing lines between
chemistry/alchemy, astronomy/astrology
Charlatans: Nostradamus and Paracelsus
But…was it a Revolution?
Was it a
revolution?
 Not everything associated with the “new” science
was necessarily NEW: Many of the 16th and 17th
century thinkers were re-examining and re-thinking
theories and data from the ancient world and Middle
Ages!
 Term revolution implies a rapid, collective change

Doubt it..

It was NOT rapid, nor was it collective.
It had many false starts, wrong ideas, and only really
involved a few hundred people laboring in crude,
isolated labs across Poland, Italy, Bohemia, France and
Great Britain.
 In addition, it wasn’t just the scientists who
contributed – artisans and craftspeople helped to
construct instruments and execute experiments.
 The term “scientist” didn’t even exist until the
1830’s, but by the end of the 17th century, new
scientific concepts and methods were so impressive
that they set the standard for assessing the
validity of knowledge in the Western world.
Toward a New Heaven:
A Revolution in Astronomy
 The medieval model of the universe blends the ides
of Aristotle (384-322 BCE), Ptolemy (83-161 CE),
Galen and Christian theology.


(YOU)

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Geocentric Model
Postulated that the universe was a series of concentric
spheres with a motionless earth at the center
Earth was imperfect and made of earth, air, fire and
water, while the “spheres” – that numbered 10, were
“perfect” heavenly bodies made of crystalline
“quintessence” that revolved around it
The universe was finite
Beyond the 10th sphere was the heavens where God
and saved souls were.
 The medieval church upheld this view, which
seemed to mesh with scripture
Hogwash.


When astronomers started to discover that their
observations couldn’t confirm this theory, they tried
desperately to make their observations “fit” – however
ridiculous these attempts may have been
These astronomers were largely CHRISTIANS, and felt
torn over their discoveries.
Toward a New Heaven:
A Revolution in Astronomy
Now that I’m about to
eat it, I shall release my
findings about the
heliocentric universe in
On the Revolutions of
the Heavenly Spheres!
That way the Church
can’t torture me and
condemn me to death,
cuz I will already be
DEAD! Woohoo! I’m so
crafty…
I’m
gonn
a
score.
I think I
just peed
myself!
I could give a rat’s ass
about the heliocentric
theory!
Don’t get
knocked
up!
 Copernicus’ Heliocentric Theory
 Nicolaus Copernicus (1473 –
1543)
 On The Revolution of the
Heavenly Spheres
 Published on his death-bed out
of fear of the Church!
 Earth and planets revolve
around sun!
 Creates doubt about the
Ptolemaic system
 Most people had no idea what
Copernicus had discovered
Toward a New Heaven:
Copernicus and His Theory
If only if I had
just excused
myself at that
dinner
party…or just
worn my
Depends…
A Revolution in Astronomy
Brahe and Kepler
 Tycho Brahe (1546 – 1601)
Gathered data about the movement of the
heavens
 Remained a devout Christian.
 Tried to “prove” Copernicus wrong
 Duel gone wrong – lost bridge of nose at age 20
and had a metal prosthetic!
 Unfortunate, “explosive” ending of his life,
or…was he murdered by Kepler? (mercury)
 Johannes Kepler (1571 – 1630)
 managed to clean up Copernican errors by
showing that planets moved in elliptical orbits
 Developed Laws of Planetary Motion
 His revised theory was simple, had clear proof in
mathematics, and it could be tested by
observations.
Lay off the
 The “real world” did correspond to the purely
hallucinogens,
rational world of mathematical harmony.
Johannes!
 Harmony of the Worlds (1619) and the “Music of
the Spheres”
 Discredits Ptolemaic System

Listen to the
music of the
heavenly
spheres!
Or…
Tycho – I secretly
poisoned you and
passed it off that
you pissed
yourself to death!
Muahahahaha!
Dude. Not cool.
A Revolution in Astronomy:
Galileo Galilei (1564-1642)
 Galileo Galilei (1564 – 1642)

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Nobody’s
perfect.
Sheesh.
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Use of the telescope
The Starry Messenger (1610)
Scientific leadership passes to England, France
and the Netherlands
Moon had craters, the sun had spots, Jupiter
had moons clearly rotating, and the stars were
clearly much further away than had been
thought.
Uniformity of matter in the universe.
Developed mathematical laws of motion on
earth--falling bodies, dynamics/inertia.
These ideas shattered notions based on
Aristotelian logic and long accepted by the
Church as the truth.
Galileo, fiery and stubborn, was not the one to
remain quiet about his findings.
A Revolution in Astronomy:
Galileo’s Dialogues and Trial
Take it
BACK,
beotch!
The Trial of Galileo
Ok…but it does
move…
 Though many leading
churchmen quietly agreed
with Galileo, “Mother Church”
condemned the new heresy
and banned Galileo’s book,
Dialogue on Two World
Systems (Simplicio, Sagredo,
Salviati)
 When Galileo refused to keep
quiet, the Church tried and
convicted him, holding him
under house arrest until his
death.
 The book was published, in
Protestant Holland.
Sir Isaac Newton (1642 – 1727)
 Brought Kepler and Galileo together by

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Nature and nature's laws lay hid
in night;
God said "Let Newton be" and all
was light.
-A. Pope
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proving why planets tend to fall to the
sun and thus moved in elliptical orbits.
Universal gravitation
In his Principia Mathematica: The
Mathematical Principles of Natural
Philosophy (1687), presented three
laws of motion.
The theory required calculus, new
measurements of the earth’s size, and
experiments with the pendulum.
World seen in mechanistic terms
Idea of the “World Machine” born
Chair of Mathematics at Cambridge
University
Times were changing – acceptance!
Newton’s Impact
Awesome! I
suddenly feel
like listening to
showtunes and
redecorating my
crib!
 Newton’s work led to chronometers and the ability to

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
Newton discovers the first
“Gay Pride” rainbow.
Holla!

precisely determine longitude; map-making
(cartography) became a science.
Math (and better metallurgy) produced much better
artillery
Artillery meant warfare was more expensive--with
advantages to larger nations with more efficient
central governments.
Improve firearms also gave Europeans a major
advantage over non-Europeans.
Steam power also resulted from improvements in
science:
 Scientists, mechanics, and instrument makers
combined to produce the steam engine
 a practical non-scientist, Thomas Newcomen
finally put all the pieces together (and getting all
the credit, not to mention the cash).
Isaac Newton (1642 – 1727)
Advances in Medicine:
Galen’s Legacy

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Through the Middle Ages, Galen was
the authority in medicine.
Galen relied upon animal dissection
to create a picture of human
anatomy, and was often inaccurate
Though humans were dissected in
late middle ages, Galen’s texts still
guided the dissection, so not much
changed.
Galen also governed views on
physiology and believed that there
were 2 different blood systems.
4 humors theory of Galen’s
dominated medical treatment, and
color of urine determined levels.
Bleeding/purging used to treat.
Advances in Medicine:
The Legacy of the Four Humors
Woe is me…I
wanna die.
Misery
is so
sexy.
The Four Humors
Beotch! I said
make me
chicken pot pie!
Melancholic:
moody
glum
“emo”
Choleric:
irritable
hot-tempered
Let’s get
it ON!
Sanguine:
happy
healthy
passionate
I will feign sleep
while this
midget spins me
a shirt.
I will feign
spinning then
strangle him
with my twine.
Phlegmatic:
slow
droopy
Advances in Medicine
Too many
prunes.
I’ve been
doing yoga.
Medical Practice
Dude. Your
leg is f*&^ed
Illustrations from the Livre de Chirurgie (13th
c.) show the physician treating patients
suffering from a variety of
complaints. Regardless of the horror
presented by the injury (note the stake
through the leg, center right) or the
repulsiveness of the symptoms (diarrhea,
top left), the neatly dressed physician is
always calm and reassuring. The
illustrations are unaccompanied by
captions. They are intended to serve as a
Ah. Green
lizard-skin
guide to the information elsewhere in the
disease!
text and to be explained by someone
Must
amputate!
knowledgeable.
Advances in Medicine – Galen Challenged!

Paracelsus (1493 – 1541)
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Andreas Vesalius (1514 – 1564)
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Born Auroleus Phillipus Theostratus Bombastus von
Hohenheim (1493-1541) of Zurich
Was a cantankerous, pompous physician who offended
all in his wake…
Did realize that Galen and Aristotle were incorrect –
understood that illness was caused by chemical
imbalance.
Early drug treatments using principle that “like treats
like” rather than Galen’s “contraries cure.”
Sometimes he was correct, sometimes terribly wrong
On the Fabric of the Human Body (1543)
Dissection of a human body
Corrects Galen’s errors
William Harvey (1578 – 1657)


On the Motion of the Heart and Blood (1628)
Circulation of the blood
Women and Modern Science:
General Trends
 In Middle Ages, women were discouraged from pursuing

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scholarly learning – unless they had entered religious
orders.
Traditional roles enforced: daughter, wife, mother.
Secular humanists of the Renaissance changed this, as
elite women had the opportunity to learn classical and
Christian texts.
Many Northern Humanists and Italian Renaissance
humanists encouraged women to participate in learning
and even pursue a life of scholarship – but this was an
elite few.
Women were also attracted to the Scientific Revolution –
and had some opportunities b/c in the 17th century,
science was not yet monopolized by university system,
and was studied informally – so women’s exclusion from
university didn’t really set them back as much.
Women and Modern Science:
England


Women who were noble and had the time could
participate informally in scientific networks
Margaret Cavendish (1623 – 1673)

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Observations upon Experimental Philosophy
Grounds of Natural Philosophy
Attacked rationalist and empiricist approaches to
scientific knowledge
Corresponded with many scientists; translated
scientific works into English.
Was still denied membership in the Royal Society,
though she was allowed to attend a meeting.
Women and Modern Science:
Germany
 Less formal tradition rooted in the craft industry opened
science to women there.
 Between 1650-1710, 14% of all astronomers in Germany
were women.


Maria Sibylla Merian (1647-1717) 18th century entomologist
 Trained in her father’s illustration workshop and became a
talented sketch artist.
 She wrote books comprised of illustrations of the phases of
insect life
 Wonderful Metamorphosis and Special Nourishment of
Caterpillars
 Metamorphosis of the Insects of Surinam which she
completed while traveling to the Dutch Colony there.
Maria Winkelmann (1670-1720)
 Learned astronomy with her father and uncle
 Married well-known astronomer Gottfried Kirch.
 Winkelmann became his assistant at the astronomical
observatory in Berlin & independently discovered a comet.
 After his death, she applied for but was denied a post at the
Berlin Academy, on the grounds that “mouths would gape”
Debate Over the Nature of Women:
Querelles des Femmes

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Men saw women as inherently base, prone to vice, easily swayed, and
sexually insatiable – and in need of control by men
Women joined the debate, arguing that women also had rational minds
and could benefit form education, and since women were pious, chaste,
and temperate, they didn’t need men’s authority over them
In the end, the S.R. didn’t help women resolve the issue favorably
Science was used as a tool to find new “support” for traditional views
of women’s place in the world

Wm. Harvey argued that women only supplied the matter and men
the “vivifying force” in the reproductive process

Anatomy was used against women too as the womb was touted as
the perfect instrument for childbearing and so women should be
governed by it

Women’s pelvises were portrayed as larger and skulls as smaller to
“demonstrate” and justify male superiority
Making medicine more institutionalized in universities and scientific
societies hurt women, as midwives were moved out of their roles and
men took over the birthing process (less so in lower classes)
A New View of Humankind:
Francis Bacon (1561-1626) and Inductive Reasoning
 Bacon wrote The Great Instauration where he called for
an overhaul of knowledge and science and Novum
Organum, in which he insisted on inductive reasoning
 Reason from the concrete, particular to the abstract,
general
 Rejected traditional ideas and preconceptions
 Favored empiricism, with knowledge to be derived from
observation and experience.

Bacon the Lawyer: Begin
with specific 
observations and facts
and synthesize them to
draw broad conclusions,
like one would build a
court case.

Experimentation
Control and domination of nature
He also wrote New Atlantis, portraying a scientific utopia
where there was no break between pure science and
technological invention

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
Bacon had no influence on actual science
he lacked knowledge of the new work being done in
his time
he failed to understand the role of mathematics,
which involves deductive logic rather than
empiricism.
A New View of Humankind:
Descartes (1596 – 1650) and Deductive Reasoning



Descartes the
Mathematician: Start with
the generalization and
from there, draw out the
specific parts that justify
it, like a mathematical
proof.
Discourse on Method (1637)
“I think, therefore I am.”
God exists because man (imperfect) could
conceive of perfection, it could only have
come from a perfect being (God)
 Cartesian Dualism

Universe contains 2 things God created:
“thinking substance” and everything else
in the world except it – matter.

Matter can be understood as it is subject
to physical laws.

Mind and body separate entities then!
 Father of modern rationalism and deductive
reasoning
The Scientific Societies:
Background
 During the 17th century, greater emphasis
Commemorating Charles II
and the founding of the
English Royal Society
was placed on scientific learning and many
changes facilitated the discovery and spread
of scientific knowledge.
 Many secular leaders appointed scientists to
their courts or even built laboratories for
them.
 Scientific societies sanctioned by the state
emerged, as well as their
publications/journals to spread the new
learning.
 Eventually, many states realized that science
and the technology that resulted from it could
be harnessed to bolster the state’s position
and power
The Scientific Societies:
Development
 Academy of Experiments (1657)
founded by Galileo’s pupils in Florence through Medici patronage

Lab closed down when Medici withdrew funding in 1667.
 English Royal Society (1662)

Informal meetings at London and Oxford

Given formal charter in 1662 by Charles II, but received little
encouragement from government

Published the journal Philosophical Transactions beginning in 1665 for
scientists to share their work
 English Royal Observatory (1675) founded in Greenwich
 French Academie des Sciences (1666)

Informal meetings in Paris

Formally recognized by Louis XIV (1666) and received a great deal of
royal support AND control


Published the Journal des Savants starting in 1665, that printed results of
experiments for scientists and educated laypeople alike
 Berlin Academy of Science (1700)


created by the King Frederick I of Brandenburg-Prussia
Devoted to betterment of the state
 St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences (1725) founded by Peter the Great
Science and Religion in 17th century:
General Trends
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Church had enjoyed having final say in all
matters, including natural philosophy
When S.R. hit, many scientists doubted the
church’s position on these matters
While Galileo tried to keep matters
separate, the Church’s decision to silence
him seemed to forever pit science against
religion
As science gained more ground, religion
suffered, and Europe became more
secularized.
Attempts to ease the antagonism between
religion and science ultimately failed.
People did not leave the church over this
Gap between Christianity and science
widened significantly at this time
Many scientists were religious and found
this split to be tragic
Some attempted to comment on the
implications of this…
Science and Religion:
Blaise Pascal (1623 – 1662)
 Sought to keep science
and religion united
 Mystical vision (1654)
 Pensées (Thoughts)
 Sought to convert
rationalists to Christianity
 Christianity not contrary
to reason
 Reason had limits!
Benedict (Baruch) Spinoza (1632-1677)


Spinoza rockin’ the Jewfro!
Disagreed with Descartes that God was separate
from matter.
God didn’t just create the universe, he WAS the
universe.

This theory is called pantheism or monism.

Wrote Ethics Demonstrated in the Geometrical
Manner to explain his theory.

God is no longer the transcendent creator of the
universe who rules it via providence, but Nature
itself, understood as an infinite, necessary, and
fully deterministic system of which humans are a
part.

Humans find happiness only through a rational
understanding of this system and their place
within it.

believed one should live his life based on a stern,
pure ethical code.

Scarcely read because of his “impiety,” his ideas
spread slowly.
John Locke (1632-1704) on Religion

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More reassuring, and thus more widely read than
Spinoza.
He favored an established church, but called for
toleration for all but Catholics (seen as adherents
of a foreign power) and atheists (lacking a basis of
moral responsibility).
His Essay Concerning the Human
Understanding (1690) stated that all knowledge
is derived from sensate experience, since the
mind at birth is a tabula rasa.
He believed the environment was all-important; all
crime, false ideas, and superstitions came from
bad environment
His ideas became the basis of confidence in the
possibility of social progress, with government
playing the key role.
Political Theory:
The School of Natural Law
 Political theory is practical, for it deals with
what IS rather than what OUGHT to be.
 Machiavelli began by ignoring the scholastic
notion of what is the “best” form of
government to examine how rulers actually
behaved.


rulers worked on one principle: what advanced
their power
no concern for morality.
 The seventeenth century returned to the
classical notion of natural law.
Political Theory:
The School of Natural Law
 Natural Law – a universal “right” and “wrong”
exist naturally



No king can make right that which is wrong.
No people, by its will as a people, can make just
that which is unjust.
Right and law, in the ultimate sense, exist
outside and above all peoples.
 Man is rational and can discover natural--or
universal--law by his reason.
 Ironically, both absolutism and
constitutionalism have been justified by
reference to natural law.
Political Theory:
Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679)
 Disliked the disorder and violence of civil war (lived through
Wars of Religion)
 He concluded that man “in a state of nature” lacked even the
rudimentary ability for self-rule

Man was quarrelsome, vicious, and brutal

Life was “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.”
 Out of fear, men made a contract



A ruler was given absolute power to enable a maintenance of order.
Absolutism was to produce civil peace, individual security, and the rule
of law.
Absolute power existed to promote the individual welfare--not as a
means to a totalitarian state.
 Leviathan (1651)

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social contract allowed for absolute rule
Rebellion vs. social contract forbidden!
Political Theory:
John Locke (1632-1704)
 Agreed that government was a contract, but man was inherently
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good, only hindered by lack of public authority.
Man had inalienable rights--life, liberty, and property.
By his own power he could not protect his rights, so he set up a
government to enforce the rights of all.
The contract has mutual obligations - if the ruler violates them, he
people have the right of rebellion.
Locke took a specifically English event (the Glorious Revolution)
and gave it universal meaning, influencing many later thinkers.
He carried over ideas that were basically medieval, but in a
specifically secular way.
Two Treatises on Government (1689)
 Book 1: no government can be justified by an appeal to the divine
right of kings.
 Book 2: all men are created equal in the state of nature by God.
The only legitimate governments are those which have the consent
of the people. Thus, any government that rules without the consent
of the people can be overthrown
Summary
 The scientific revolution forever changed Europeans’
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view of the universe and their place in it.
The Ptolemaic-Aristotelian world of the MA was
overturned and the heliocentric dominated
Descartes and Bacon led all to believe reason could be
the solitary tool needed to understand nature
A rift between church and science grew
The earth – with its albeit diminished role in the
universe – was governed by natural laws that could be
understood with reason
People recognized science’s rational superiority
Science offered new ways to exploit resources for profit
This would lead into the Enlightenment…
Discussion Questions
 How did the Middle Ages and the Renaissance
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contribute to the Scientific Revolution?
Why were advances in Mathematics so important
during the Scientific Revolution?
Why did religious leaders react so negatively to the
new advances in Science, especially in astronomy?
Why is Newton’s Principia called the “hinge point of
modern scientific thought?
How did women come to play such an important role
in the Scientific Revolution?
How did Pascal try to “keep science and religion
united?” Why?
Web Links
 The Scientific Revolution Homepage
 The Alchemy Website
 The Galileo Project
 Internet History of Science Sourcebook
 Luther and Science
 Historical Anatomies on the Web